


Falling in love

by A_R_Nicoletti



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, BAMF Harry, BAMF Harry Potter, Crushes, Falling In Love, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, Good Draco Malfoy, Idiots in Love, M/M, Making Out, Pining Harry, Pining Harry Potter, Please don't hurt my soft babies I love them, Post-Battle of Hogwarts, Protective Harry, Romance, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Top Draco Malfoy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-26
Updated: 2019-01-26
Packaged: 2019-10-16 11:49:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,297
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17549141
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/A_R_Nicoletti/pseuds/A_R_Nicoletti
Summary: When school goes back after the battle of hogwarts, thing's are different, they're all different. For Harry and Draco, this is the start of something new and oh so sweet.





	Falling in love

After the war, after the rebuilding of Hogwarts and the government and people’s lives, Hogwarts opened back up and everyone went back to school.

It wasn’t quite the same anymore, especially because they didn’t rebuild it the exact way it had been. Harry always kept his eyes straight forward, most of them that had been there during the war did, because of you stopped to look around you’d get caught.

A friend died there, a stranger there, a body laid there. That wall there was blown to pieces, someone fell from that ledge there too.

Harry kept his eyes straight and his head down. No one came back from that war the same.

“Do you have potions today Harry?” Hermione asked quietly. If harry was too deep into his headspace, anything loud and sudden ran the risk of startling him, in a very bad way.

Harry shook his head and smiled up at her.

“No, just yesterday and tomorrow- why is your hair singed?” Harry frowned at her burnt hair suspiciously.

“Some Slytherin had a go at Malfoy about… you know, again” she sighed and took the seat next to Harry in the great hall.

Their voices dropped lower, wary of the students around them, many who hadn’t been there during the war or who had been evacuated during it. Sometimes the first years were too curious for their own good.

“They’ve been targeting him more and more Harry, and he doesn’t even bat an eye, just takes it. I think he blames himself, after Crabbe, and you… you died and it just” She took a deep breath. It was a sore conversation for all of them.

When school had started back up, Draco had come to them, a low apology on the train and a morose shared carriage ride to Hogwarts. They came to an understanding, all of them, and since then the trio, and others had taken Draco’s side.

To be honest, Harry had been a little blindsided when he saw Draco again, it had been 6 months since the battle and both had changed. Be it trauma, or life or just aging in general, Draco had matured, he’d gained muscles, he’d filled out and shot up and he looked damn _good._

“Did he say anything to you?” Harry asked. He hadn’t fought on Draco’s behalf very much, spent too much time hiding away to be there when he needed rescuing and he kind of hated himself for it.

“Thanked me, asked how you were coping. He knows you’re not okay either Harry.” She leaned her head on his shoulder and he sighed.

“I just need a little more time, I promise” He swallowed.

“No one expects you to be back on your feet like that, a lot happened, take your time”

 

*****

 

It was early morning, after class with some new professor that harry couldn’t even focus enough to remember the name of, that he was there in time to rescue Draco.

“Come on Malfoy! Don’t even pretend like you’re one of us you were working for him! And not you’ve got the chosen one and the others protecting you? You’re a liar!” It was a Ravenclaw, one Harry didn’t know.

He couldn’t help but notice the way Draco blankly stared unseeingly over her head as she got in his face. Harry pushed his way between them angrily.

“Hey, lay off alright?” He growled, placing a gentle but warning hand on her shoulder.

“Why are you defending him!” She hissed. “My brother is dead because of him!”

Harry sighed.

“I am sorry for your loss, but did you see him directly kill your brother?”

She faltered.

“No but-!”

Harry held up a hand.

“I was there, I saw everything. He was on our side, he _gave me_ his wand, he gave me a crucial item to winning that battle and he didn’t have to kill anyone to do it” He hissed. He turned to the people standing around gawking. They were all students who hadn’t been gawking. “This goes for everyone. If you so much as look at Draco funny again, you will be declaring yourself the enemy of Harry potter. Think. Wisely.”

Harry hated to have to pull his status. But there it was, to protect someone he cared about. After all, it had really been Draco all along, hadn’t it?

Harry turned to a shocked yet impressed Draco, finding the taller man’s eyes warm and firm.

“Come on” Harry said lowly to him, and pulled on his robe sleeve, walking away from the scene he’d made.

Harry had been on his way to one of his secret hidey-away-from-everyone spots, what was the harm in Draco finding comfort there too? Sometimes things got too much for harry, sometimes the hero worship was overwhelming, and his hiding places- thank you marauders map- we’re perfect to get away.

“Where are we going?” Draco asked, not unkindly.

“I have these hiding places, I wanna show you. Most people don’t know about them, so you’ll get left alone there. I come to them when… everything’s just too much” He replied, and Draco remained silent. Harry potter was not one to share his feelings.

They turned a sharp corner and Draco jumped. He… hadn’t known that corner was there, where the hell did this whole turret come from?  Harry looked at him with a gentle, shy smile, noticing Draco’s look of amazement and wonder.

“How do you even find these places Harry? He asked, almost breathless in wonder as they climbed the stairs.

Harry reached into his robes and pulled out a parchment, stopping near the top of the winding turret at a large window with a bay seat that overlooked the whole school. It was peaceful here, Draco noted.

Harry held the paper out to Draco, it was blank, and he smiled.

“I solemnly swear I am up to no good” He muttered, smiling at the paper.

Draco gasped a little and Harry felt pleased, knowing his father, his godfather, Remus too had made this map made him proud. He hoped they were enjoying the afterlife.

“My dad, and Sirius and Remus and Pettigrew made this map when they were students. It shows every single inch of the school, hidden passages, hidden areas. And even better, it shows everyone’s names, where they are” He beamed, and Draco was blinded by him for a moment.

“This… explains a lot actually. Can you… tell me more?” They sat together, missing lunch, missing snack, chatting well until sunset.

It was like the floodgates had released. Harry could talk about his upbringing with the Dursleys, his parents, his godfather, Remus as family and a werewolf, about all his years at Hogwarts from his perspective, all the things that Draco just didn’t know. In turn, Draco told him about how things were for him, the pressure from his father, his mother being absent, and then his father going to Azkaban again now, his mother being loving and finally being all a mother should be.

“She told me, you know. About how you died, and how when she checked if you were alive, you told her where I was. She thinks highly of you. Especially since… well, you freed her” Draco sighed, resting his head against the window as they watched the sun set.

“I’m glad… She seemed like she loves you, she was so worried about you that she helped me it really meant a lot, I never got the chance to forgive her” Harry confessed, scratching his neck and looking down at the grounds and the students heading into the great hall in the distance.

“I made your life so much harder for you, I’m so sorry Harry” Draco said, looking into Harry’s green eyes.

The smaller shook his head, standing.

“You couldn’t have known, I don’t blame you, and I’ve long since forgiven you” He blushed, meaning his every word.

“Even after all this” Draco said as he stood too, “you’re so forgiving”

Harry shrugged, there was more to live for then holding grudges over something they couldn’t change.

“Thank you for this too” The blonde said as he straightened his robes, walking back down the stairs with harry. “It… it means more than you probably realise”

Harry bumped his arm into the others gently, directing them to the great hall for dinner.

“I know exactly how much it means, for slightly different reasons but… I get it”

They entered the hall and the noise dimmed a little, word had spread fast about Harry’s earlier proclamation, and seeing the two ex-enemies walk in together, standing so close, must really have made for a sight to see. Harry willed away yet another blush.

“You know, you still haven’t told me about your journey after you ditched school potter” Draco said with a daring smirk, and Harry chuckled. Tomorrow was the weekend, perfect.

“Tomorrow then, same time, same place?” He asked.

Draco leaned down to whisper in his ear.

“It’s a date”

Harry spent all his dinner sharing glances across the hall with Draco and ignoring the Gryffindor tables ribbing.

*******

Harry told Draco about camping, about infiltrating the ministry, about Gringotts, about the dragon, about his birth home and Nagini and nearly drowning and dobby and the horcrux’s. Draco talked about when he saw harry at the Malfoy manor, about his intense desire to protect harry, about wanting to run away and how he and his mother had moved into a smaller, double story apartment to leave behind the memories of the manor.

“I always wanted to be your friend” Draco said out of nowhere one day, over a week after the first time Harry showed him his hiding spot. They’d met there every day, talking, studying, learning one another.

Harry felt his heart clench but didn’t interrupt.

“I knew I fucked up and didn’t want to suck up my pride and dignity to fix it. I know especially now that I should have, that I could have had all this long ago and… Maybe things wouldn’t have turned out this way. I keep thinking, maybe I could have stopped the battle if I’d been on your side.”

Harry let out a small noise, pained and saddened.

“You helped me win you know, I don’t know if I could have without you”

“Only you could be so sweet and forgiving” Draco murmured, brushing his fingers over Harrys cheek gently.

Harry hardly slept that night.

******

“How’s Draco?” Hermione asked, sitting beside him in the common room. It had been a few hours since Draco had touched his cheek so caringly, since they had split for dinner.

“Gentle, understanding, apologetic” Harry sighed out, and Hermione smiled at him lovingly.

It was past midnight, Harry had come to sit in the light of the common room fire, thinking, wanting.

“It’s okay to admit it Harry, things are different now” she prompted.

He sighed, he knew she was right.

“I like him ‘mione, I think I always have to some degree too. He’s changed and… he listens, and he talks and he’s so gentle and I just… I think I’m falling in love” He admitted, heart pounding as he finally said it out loud.

“It’s about time mate, we were all wondering how long it would take you” Ron said as he appeared, sitting on the couch beside Harry.

They all laughed together, feeling warm and fuzzy and nostalgic.

“Tell him Harry, I think he feels the same way” Hermione said, resting her head on his shoulder.

Harry sighed again, leaning back into the couch and thinking of that gentle touch, maybe, just maybe, he would.

********

“Do you think maybe, Harry, you could come over and see mum and I, during the Christmas break?” Draco said one evening as they studied in their secret tower. Harry nearly choked on the air he was breathing in.

“Uh, um, yes?” He squeaked out, going red at the grin Malfoy aimed at him.

“Good! Cause yeah, I sent mum a letter, said we’d been… hanging out, she demanded I bring you to visit and all” He chuckled.

Harry nodded, blushing.

“In that case do… do you think you and your mum would like to come to the burrow during Christmas, too?” He asked, Molly had said to bring the poor boy along too since harry started owling her, and clearly Ron had been ranting to his mum about Harry and Draco too.

“Oh, yeah, for sure” Draco said, stunned.

They sat in silence, looking at each other.

Then it just happened, Harry doesn’t know who moved, thinks it was both, because suddenly they were kissing, Harry’s arms were around Draco’s neck, Draco’s hands pressing into the small of his back and pulling him in closer.

Harry’s heart pounded in his chest. His lips were so soft, so sweet, his touch gentle and demanding and so _Draco_ that Harry got lost in him with ease. It just felt so right, felt like part of him had clicked in to place and he’d finally found home.

“I’ve been wanting to do that for weeks, god Harry” Draco gasped as he pulled back.

Harry giggled, actually _giggled._

“Pretty sure I’ve been wanting to do that for years” Harry whispered.

“Oh” Draco replied.

They kissed again, and again, till harry was in Draco’s lap and his lips were swollen and his eyes were glazed.

“Be mine Harry” Draco whispered against his lips.

Harry nodded.

“Yeah, yes, absolutely”

The blonde laughed. “You’re gorgeous”

If they entered the great hall holding hands and looking dazed and happy, and if Draco sat at the Gryffindor table, Holding Harry’s hand through dinner and chatting with the Gryffindor’s casually, well, no one said a thing. And if Draco’s friends came and sat with them? Well, the more the merrier.


End file.
